Scope and fit
Authelia is an open-source authentication and authorization server and portal that commonly works alongside reverse proxies. It can protect compatible web services with single sign-on and multi-factor authentication, while centralizing policy decisions for those routes.
Protect services at the edge
Authelia integrates with supported reverse proxies to authenticate users before they reach protected applications. It also provides an OpenID Connect provider for applications that integrate directly, giving teams more than one way to use the service.
Define access policy explicitly
Decide which services require authentication, which identity backend supplies users, and how groups or rules affect access. Test both expected and denied paths, including direct access attempts that might bypass the intended proxy chain.
Keep authentication dependable
Authelia participates in every protected request path, so availability, TLS, secret management, and configuration validation matter. Document how to recover the service and how administrators will reach essential systems if the normal login flow is unavailable.
Decisions and tradeoffs
Use this table as a working review record. Replace assumptions with evidence from the target environment.
| Decision area | Working guidance |
|---|---|
| Protect services at the edge | Authelia integrates with supported reverse proxies to authenticate users before they reach protected applications. It also provides an OpenID Connect provider for applications that integrate directly, giving teams more than one way to use the service. |
| Define access policy explicitly | Decide which services require authentication, which identity backend supplies users, and how groups or rules affect access. Test both expected and denied paths, including direct access attempts that might bypass the intended proxy chain. |
| Keep authentication dependable | Authelia participates in every protected request path, so availability, TLS, secret management, and configuration validation matter. Document how to recover the service and how administrators will reach essential systems if the normal login flow is unavailable. |
Implementation questions
What should the team decide about protect services at the edge?
Authelia integrates with supported reverse proxies to authenticate users before they reach protected applications. It also provides an OpenID Connect provider for applications that integrate directly, giving teams more than one way to use the service. Use a named owner and a written acceptance check so this decision can be reviewed after deployment.
What should the team decide about define access policy explicitly?
Decide which services require authentication, which identity backend supplies users, and how groups or rules affect access. Test both expected and denied paths, including direct access attempts that might bypass the intended proxy chain. Use a named owner and a written acceptance check so this decision can be reviewed after deployment.
What should the team decide about keep authentication dependable?
Authelia participates in every protected request path, so availability, TLS, secret management, and configuration validation matter. Document how to recover the service and how administrators will reach essential systems if the normal login flow is unavailable. Use a named owner and a written acceptance check so this decision can be reviewed after deployment.
Plan, build, verify, operate
Protect services at the edge: Authelia integrates with supported reverse proxies to authenticate users before they reach protected applications. It also provides an OpenID Connect provider for applications that integrate directly, giving teams more than one way to use the service. Record the result and the next owner before changing the next boundary.
Define access policy explicitly: Decide which services require authentication, which identity backend supplies users, and how groups or rules affect access. Test both expected and denied paths, including direct access attempts that might bypass the intended proxy chain. Record the result and the next owner before changing the next boundary.
Keep authentication dependable: Authelia participates in every protected request path, so availability, TLS, secret management, and configuration validation matter. Document how to recover the service and how administrators will reach essential systems if the normal login flow is unavailable. Record the result and the next owner before changing the next boundary.
Deployment checks
Turn the page into a reviewable handover by assigning each check to a person and retaining its result.
Authentication portal for proxied services
Protect services at the edge: Authentication portal for proxied services. Confirm the owner, input, evidence, and acceptance check before this work moves into production.
Single sign-on and multi-factor options
Protect services at the edge: Single sign-on and multi-factor options. Confirm the owner, input, evidence, and acceptance check before this work moves into production.
Access control policies for routed applications
Protect services at the edge: Access control policies for routed applications. Confirm the owner, input, evidence, and acceptance check before this work moves into production.
Inventory protected hostnames and routes
Define access policy explicitly: Inventory protected hostnames and routes. Confirm the owner, input, evidence, and acceptance check before this work moves into production.
Choose identity backend and MFA requirements
Define access policy explicitly: Choose identity backend and MFA requirements. Confirm the owner, input, evidence, and acceptance check before this work moves into production.
Validate proxy headers and policy outcomes
Define access policy explicitly: Validate proxy headers and policy outcomes. Confirm the owner, input, evidence, and acceptance check before this work moves into production.
Proxy chain and access policy review
Authelia usually protects a service through a supported reverse-proxy integration. Begin by listing every hostname, path, backend service, and network route. The intended proxy chain must be the only usable public path to a protected application. If a backend has a separate direct address, private load balancer route, or alternate hostname, test whether that path is blocked or protected by a separate control.
Access-control rules should be readable as a statement about a person and a service: who can reach which domain or route, from where, and with which authentication requirement. Map group names to the identity backend and test both a permitted account and a denied account. Denial testing matters; a rule that merely lets the expected administrator in says little about the broader boundary.
Authelia can use identity backends and provides multi-factor authentication options. That means the directory connection, group sync or lookup behaviour, session storage, notification channel, and recovery method belong in the service design. Document what happens if the directory, mail system, cache, or storage is unavailable. Users need a support route, and administrators need a safe emergency-access procedure.
Headers, external URLs, TLS, session cookies, and proxy trust settings must fit together. Validate them from an external browser and from the application's perspective. Test sign-in, session expiry, logout, MFA enrolment where used, a blocked rule, and a proxy or identity-backend failure. Treat configuration validation as a release check rather than a one-time installation task.
Handover includes the protected-hostname register, policy file review, backend dependency list, account-recovery procedure, secret-rotation record, and break-glass access. Keep break-glass tightly controlled and audited; it exists to restore essential access, not to become the normal administration route.
Handover and ownership
Before handover, name the system owner, support path, access boundary, backup or recovery responsibility, and the condition that pauses a change.
Keep a short record of what was tested, what remains outside scope, and when the review should happen again.
